


Variations on a Promise

by idrilhadhafang



Series: Liquid Realities [9]
Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Angst Bingo, Gen, flawed use of big finish canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-06-30
Updated: 2012-06-30
Packaged: 2017-11-08 22:12:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,416
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/448099
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/idrilhadhafang/pseuds/idrilhadhafang
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The evolution of Koschei and Theta's relationship.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Variations on a Promise

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: I own nothing.
> 
> Written for the angst_bingo prompt "Broken vows". May have flawed use of merging old canon with new.

Koschei groans as he wakes up, rubbing his head. This isn't the first time that he's woken up with a pounding headache, as well as the faint sound of something in his mind that sounds vaguely like drum beats. Ever since the initiation, really. Which isn't right. He's heard the occasional rumor of those who went mad staring into the Schism, which was enough to almost deter Koschei from going (he went anyway, if only because he had to), but even now, the pounding in his head (onetwothreeFOUR, onetwothreeFOUR, never stopping) doesn't make any sense. At the very least he could research it, find some answers behind it. If he has any luck, that is.   
  
"You're late for breakfast." A tawny haired boy with a cheerful, almost sunny demeanor, walks up to him, distracting him from his thoughts.   
  
Koschei feels a flush coloring his cheeks. "I'm sorry."   
  
"Don't worry. I just didn't want you to get left behind."   
  
"Well...thanks." Koschei smiles, if slightly. "Are you -- "   
  
"New here? Yes. I'll confess I'm a bit nervous. First year here and all."   
  
_That makes two of us, then._  "Maybe we could help each other out?"   
  
The boy grins, widely. "That's a brilliant idea! I'm Theta Sigma, by the way. How about you?"   
  
"Koschei."   
  
"Wonderful to meet you, Koschei. Now come on!"   
  
And even now, following Theta down to breakfast, Koschei feels at least some of his nervousness subside.   
  
***   
  
From that day on, the two of them are all but inseparable. The rather unfortunate thing is the fact that a boy named Torvic seems to take joy in bullying the both of them -- not helped by the fact that Theta is, technically, not pure Time Lord.    
  
Koschei, of course, doesn't care about Theta's heritage. If anything, Theta is one of his dearest friends. The fact he's unconventional is one reason Koschei quite likes him -- he's perhaps one of the only people Koschei feels understands him -- which only draws Torvic to bully him as well.   
  
Throughout their time at Gallifrey's academy, Koschei makes it his job to protect Theta. Theta is his friend, after all. And no matter what happens, whatever else happens, he will never, ever let Theta down.   
  
***   
  
It's that vow that leads him to accept Theta's offer of him becoming Death's Champion. It's a night after the ordeal that he stays up, trying to will away tiredness as he studies for his latest exam, that he's distracted by Theta's moans and whimpers of fear -- of pain. "No, Torvic, stop please -- stop it -- don't want -- "   
  
Even now as Theta thrashes and groans, Koschei runs to him, crouches next to him, practically pleading with Theta to wake up, that it's okay, and it's fine -- trying so vainly to reassure him, even though --   
  
Theta's eyes snap open, and his breathing, shallow at first, eventually, evens out as he recognizes Koschei's face. "Kos..."    
  
"You're okay." Koschei draws him close now, beginning to gently rub Theta's back as the latter breaks into sobs. "It's all right, Thete, I'm here."   
  
Theta has been there for him when the drums have become too much to bear. It would be unfair if Koschei didn't do the same. And even now, reassuring and soothing Theta, Koschei vows that he will protect him, no matter what the cost.    
  
No one will ever hurt Theta again. No one.   
  
***   
It's as they get older that the drums start to trouble Koschei even more. And even worse, feelings of restlessness, only topped by his desire to protect Theta ever since Torvic. If anything, ever since the Torvic incident, the cracks that appeared, slightly, after the day of the Master's initiation, have begun to widen if ever so slightly. Cracks in the little paradise they made for just themselves, filled with games of soldiers vs. Sontarans, full of experiments and typical adolescent cockiness that they can take the world on together, and no power in the universe can stop them, full of romping in red fields calling up at the sky, full of safety and light and love and warmth that Gallifrey can't always give.   
  
Koschei knows full well they've made a deal with Death itself, with all that entails. And Theta -- Theta is Time's champion. Koschei is Death's Champion -- and Death is unforgiving. He will need to take on the role, of sorts.   
  
The Time Lord Council is utterly incompetent -- the Master has seen that too many times to count, or at the very least, he's heard of it. He will need to do what they can't -- after all, isn't that what good people *do*? Do what others can't?   
  
And then he won't be nobody anymore. A victim. Easy prey for those like Torvic. He will be master of his own destiny, master of justice. Master of death, one could say.   
  
It is on their graduation day that their true names are chosen -- Theta chooses Doctor, of course; a fitting name for the boy who wants nothing more but to heal others. To help them. Though they joke about why Koschei chose the name "Master" (at least a bit), Theta doesn't seem to think much of it. Until later.   
  
***   
Leaving Koschei -- no, not Koschei, the *Master* -- stranded there the way he did was the last thing that the Doctor ever wanted. If anything, he had pleaded with Koschei many times over. Pleaded with him to stop, to come back with him to Gallifrey. "We can help you! I can help you!"   
  
Koschei, naturally, wasn't listening.   
  
"Don't you see?" He sounded young, so young, almost like the boy that the Doctor used to know -- the boy who was practically his older brother, really. His dearest friend, his other half. The boy so devoted to duty, so afraid of failure, and yet gentle and kind and loving and playful all at once -- the boy who would occasionally sabotage his projects as part of the games they played, all in good fun, of course. And yet there was something in him that now terrified Theta -- something almost feverish, something dark. "We could rule this -- all of it!" He gestured towards the series of planets outside their window, outside the window of that ship that Koschei had called THE HAND OF JUSTICE -- almost in excitement. "Think of it, Theta. You and I, ruling the universe, making things the way we want them to be."   
  
"No, Koschei. I can't." Even now, saying it hurts -- he never imagined in a million years that his friendship with Koschei would come to this. "We can't. It's impossible."   
  
"Anything is possible. Please -- "   
  
"It's wrong! I don't care what twisted logic you're using to justify all this, it's wrong!"   
  
Even now, reflecting on this, Theta doesn't doubt the fact that what Koschei did was wrong. He only wishes there had been another way. A better way.    
  
It's later that he leaves. Steals a TARDIS and flies far away from Gallifrey, never to return. He doesn't know where he'll go, but he knows more than anything, he can't stay on Gallifrey. Not like this.   
  
***   
Even now, now that he's finished telling Rose the story, of Death's Champion and the Sea Devils and so many others that he wasn't able to do, the Doctor cannot help but notice her reaction. Earlier, she had reacted with horror at the thought of her Doctor, the kindly Doctor, leaving the Master behind in a black hole -- never mind that it's something he regrets to this day. Now, though, she's not only shocked, but saddened, even. "Doctor...I had no idea..."   
  
"Now you do," the Doctor says, a hint of bitter humor in his voice. He then grows more somber. "I do wish that there had been another way. That he hadn't -- " Even now, his voice cracks -- he still remembers the VALIANT. Too clearly, really. Pleading with the Master to stay with him -- he had lost so many people already. Too many. He couldn't afford to lose anyone else.   
  
And the Master had just given up like that...   
  
It's enough to make him almost hate the Master. But he doesn't --   
  
Even now, sitting at the dinner table with the others, laughing and joking and trying vainly to get things back to the way they were before their capture by Saxon, before the Year That Never Was, the Doctor vows, more than ever, to protect his companions with his life.   
  
Because the same thing that happened to Koschei won't happen to anyone else. He'll guarantee it.   
  
Even now, though, the Doctor doubts it was ever that simple.


End file.
